Scott Winokur sets up a straw man and knocks it down ( "Israel's disregard for human rights," Opinion Page, April 13). He asserts that Jews wrestle with a major dilemma today between supporting the Serbs or the Kosovar Albanians, and then invokes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the cause of this.

Let me put Winokur's mind at ease. The Jewish community faces no such dilemma regarding the conflict in Kosovo.

Although it is true that 55 years ago the Serbs defended Jews from the Nazis, and hundreds of thousands of Serbs were murdered in concentration camps, none of this can justify the brutal policies of Slobodan Milosevic toward the Kosovar Albanians today. The Israeli-Palestinian impasse plays no role

whatsoever in our thinking about Kosovo.

By quoting from three select individuals representing this supposed Jewish dilemma, Winokur conducted what can best be described as an in-laws poll. The troika he cites are hardly representative of the Jewish community as a whole, and to graft their fringe views onto the entire Jewish community is spurious, to say the least.

The article's appearance on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was particularly pernicious. With his hit-piece against the very country that rose out of the ashes of the Holocaust Winokur besmirched two sets of victims: the 6 million murdered Jews, and the Kosovar Albanians he cynically used as a springboard for his anti-Israel diatribe. Yitzhak Santis Director, Middle East affairs Jewish Community Relations Council San Francisco

Thank you, Scott Winokur, for the courage to speak honestly regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine. For too long the threat of anti-Semitic labeling has kept many from openly criticizing the violent and degrading methods with which Israel continues to stifle the Palestinian people.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his divisive policies, more and more Americans are beginning to question the intelligence of our sending $3 billion in annual support for his anti-peace efforts. If we expect the world to take us seriously as a global policeman we had better put our money where our mouth is. David J. Silveira San Francisco

Immigrants and babies&lt;

Mike Scott's opinions on U.S. overpopulation are more politically correct than demographically correct ( "Too many babies on board," Opinion Page, April 15). Actually, natal-American fertility declined to fewer than two children in the mid-1970s, which would have eventually stabilized our population.

At about the same time the workings of the Immigration Act of 1965 unleashed record immigration largely form high-fertility nations, which has become the U.S. population-growth driver. According to Census Bureau figures, about half to three-quarters of net U.S. population growth to 2050 will come from immigrants and their offspring.

As Scott notes but does not honestly explain, that has a lot to do with "stories of gradually declining birth rates here and there" while "the population of Los Angeles will still double in 18 yrs." Even with the unlikely "baby moratorium" he suggests, the U.S. will still have federally mandated population growth (in current immigration policy) if there is no parallel immigration moratorium. William E. Murray Portola Valley

Clinton war policy&lt;

President Clinton has flagrantly flouted international laws, has sidelined the United Nations (the world body created to handle international crises) and pushed a reluctant NATO to fall in line.

Your editorial "Goals and diversions" (April 11) overlooks these aspects and ignores the legitimate rights of a sovereign country that is trying to protect its territorial integrity and independence. The Jeff MacNelly cartoon (April 11) should have Bill Clinton in place of "Serbia," and 1,000 more skulls scattered around.

Bombings in Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq were the real diversions when Clinton was faced with congressional, domestic and very personal problems. Now an apologetic Congress has given him wide powers and that seems to have gone to his head.

This Clinton war (supported by yet another couple of new, inexperienced and trigger-happy leaders, Tony Blair of Britain and Gerhard Schroeder of Germany) has multiplied the problems in the area. The U.S. may have to accept 20,000 or more refugees too.

American men in uniform are being pushed in harm's way.

In the name of peace and humanity, Clinton is destroying another country, killing innocent people and aggravating the refugee problem a hundred-fold. And the financial burden of this blunder for American taxpayers is going to be enormous. Yatindra Bhatnagar Fremont

Dole too belligerent&lt;

Elizabeth Dole's piece ( "Best answers now will come from military might," Opinion Page, April 14) clearly shows why she is not fit to be president.

Dole seems to display true empathy to the plight of the Kosovar people, but this empathy somehow stops where the general Serbian populace is concerned. Instead of looking to solve the problem, she only wants to escalate and raise the stakes to the point where "America's resolve" becomes the issue, not the lives of innocents.

Those of us opposed to this undeclared war are not turning a blind eye to the atrocities in Yugoslavia and are not engaged in "isolationism and hand-wringing." Instead, we are calling for the use of established international legal structures to address the injustices in Yugoslavia. One cannot kill to show that killing is wrong.

America's demonization of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic serves the military-industrial complex and the video-game mentality of the media. Thoughtful analysis and a commitment to non-violent conflict resolution should be part of any discussion of this war. Alex Lantsberg San Francisco

Greens' "mature effort'&lt;

Green Party candidate Audie Bock's East Bay State Assembly "upset" election victory on March 30 was no fluke.

Contrary to Democratic Party functionaries' post-election ramblings, the Green Party of Alameda County has had in place for several years a solid electoral foundation and party infrastructure that enabled Bock to achieve her Assembly victory (with or without losing candidate Elihu Harris' campaign participation).

Alameda County has 10,000 registered Green Party members, most in the northern half of the county. The Green party fielded five municipal candidates in Berkeley during the November 1998 election - two of these Greens won. Albany's mayor was a Green until stepping down this year.

This is the party base that worked to elect Audie Bock. Bock ran a professional campaign with a significant field and phone banking operation covering the entire 18th Assembly District. Her victory was no aberration - it was the result of a mature political party effort. Christopher Kavanagh Executive Council Green Party of Alameda County Berkeley&lt;